The High Court has dismissed the challenges to the same-sex marriage (SSM) postal survey.

The ruling means that the postal survey will go ahead as planned, with ballots being mailed out from Tuesday 12 September 2017.

The challenges were made by SSM advocates, Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, and Greens Senator Janet Rice.

They claimed the Government needed Parliament to pass legislation before it could spend $122 million on the survey, and that the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) remit prevented them from conducting such a survey.